Method for the production of stockings with french heel and french foot



Sept. 17, 1940- A. VERBEEK ET AL 252 9 METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF STOCKINGS -WITH FRENCH HEEH END FRENCH F OOT Filed Jan. 1a, 1938 ATTORNEY v Patented Sept. 17, 1940 UNIT D STATES METHOD FOR. THE PRODUCTION OF STOCKINGS WITH FRENCH HEEL AND FRENCH FOOT Arnold Verbeck, Wustenbrand in Saxony, and

Erich Eissner, Chemnitz, Germany, assignors to Kalio, Inc., New York, N. Y.

Application January 13, 1938, Serial No. 184,738

In Germany January 20, 1937 a 12 Claims. (01. 66-82) This invention relates to the production of hosiery .with French heels and toes. to be produced on flat knitting machines by a process in which the heels are formed or .attached to the legs in a separate operation.

It is not new in the art to form legs and feet, without heels, in an uninterrupted operation and to thereafter knit or otherwise attach to such legs and feet, the heel portions. To do this,

the short course between the high heel and sole is cut and the end loops of the high heel .and starting loops of the foot portion of each side of the stocking are topped to a looping machine as a continuing course, or transferred as a continuing course on to the straight line of needles of a heel knitting machine.

In accordance with the known method, this necessitates first topping, on another machine,

' the needle wale loops, of which the last course 50 of the high heel is composed, and thereafter topping thereto the starting course of the foot portion,, which requires the topping of sinker .wale loops; but as sinker wale loops are relatively smaller. than needle wale loops, it follows that as it is more diiiicult to top them than is the case with needle wale loops, especially since with the known process,-the needle wales are first topped on to the implements of the other machine and so limit the movement of the fabric at the time 3 of the second topping operation; that is, when the sinker wales of the foot course are to be topped, and it is a major object of this invention to reduce this difliculty, both as regards such topping operations, whether it be to the points of a'looping machine or the needles of another knitting machine. This object is achieved by first topp ng the sinker wale loops of the foot course and then the needle wale loops of the last high heel course.

A further object of theinvention is to position the loops on the implements of the second machine, so that the high heel loops are inwardly disposed and the sole-loops outwardly disposed on the series of points orneedles to which they are transferred, thereby permitting the heels to be knitted-to the leg of the foot fabric on a regular footing machine, without changing the relative positions of the wide and narrow footing point units.

I In considering the immediately above, it is to be borne in mind that with the known process of 'knittingheels to leg and foot portions, the

' sole portions are inwardly disposed on the needle series in relation to the high heel portions, 5 so that if, during the knitting of the-heels, their They are ner, in a continued operation.

The stocking'blank shown in Fig. 1 is com- 4o inner edges are to be joined, as the knitting progresses, to the sole course. it becomes necessary to have wide narrowing point units inwardly positioned, so that the inwardly positioned sole courses can be transferred outwardly 5 and so be joined periodically to the inner heel edges, and that narrow point units must be provided outwardly positioned from the wide point units, so that the outer selvages of the heels may be fashioned. This arrangement of point 10 units is not common to regular footing machines, so that it becomes necessary, when adapting footing machines to knit heels in the manner above described, to go to theexpense of rearranging the point units; whereas with the herein 15 needle wales of the high heel portion and the later-to-be-transferred sinker wales of the sole portion with the joining, later-to-bercut course 30 therebetween; Fig. 3 shows the new arrange-- ment of positioning the fabric on the implements of.another machine or the needles of existing footing machines, so that the heels can be attached'or knitted thereon. 35

The fabric shown in Fig. 1 is knitted on a legging machine equipped with four narrowing point units for each section, in the regular manposed of the leg la, and the continuouslyknitted foot portion lb and it is this stocking blank that is to be transferred, to a second machine, so that heels can be attached or formed thereon. 'While the heels can be knitted as separate fabrics and 45 joined to the leg by looping, we prefer to knit and join the heel to the leg blank by transferring the sole loops after they are cut from the high heel portion, to the needles of another knitting machine, to which the high heel courses are also 50 transferred, and we propose to use for this purpose, the regular footing machine. While the loops can be directly so transferred to the needles of such a machine, desirably, a special topping machine is interposed in the process to M facilitate the transfer of the loops to the needies of the second knitting machine. For this purpose, a known type of topping machine, hav-- ing swingable point bar portions, may be used, so that the two series of points may be closely positioned in parallel relation to each other, one set of points engaging the sole loops and the other points, the high heel loops.

In,present-day use of such special topping machines, the transfer is made with the leg down and the foot up; whereas in this new process the foot is down and the leg up, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, so that the sinker loop heads of the sole course, which, as previously explained, are smaller than needle wale loops, point upwardly, as most clearly shown in Fig. 2. In other words, the smaller sinker wale loops, with a new method of holding the fabric, point upwardly in the same manner as the needle wale loops of the high heel course pointed upwardly with the older method of holding the fabric; and in the new process, it is these sinker wale loops of the sole course 2 that are first transferred to the points 3, (see Fig. 2). The course 4 is not topped, but the next row 5, which is the last high heel course and the end loops of which are composed of needle wale loops, are then transferred to the points 6 of the 180 movable portion of the topping stand.

With this sequence of topping the loops, the small and difiicult to transfer sinker wale loops of the first foot course have been topped on to the points while the fabric was not under any restraint and while the needle wale loops of the end course of the high heel must be transferred to the points of the swingable bar portion, while the fabric is restrained due to the sole course being already on the points, such fabric restraint, due to the needle wale loops being larger than the sinker wale loops, is much less objectionable than the reverse process.

After the loops at both sides of the stocking have been so transferred, the fabric is out along the course 4, Fig. 2, from the inner heel corners to the outer selvages and thereafter the swingable point bars of the topping machine, to which have been transferred the last course of high heel fabric, are swung inwardly towards eachother so that the loops 2 of the foot course and the loops 5 of the high heel course of both sides of the fabric, lie in a straight line, so that they can readily, in any well-known manner, be transferred on to astraight line of implements and heels connected thereto, either by knitting o topping previously knitted heel tabs.

- The point or needle bar of the second machine is clearly shown in Fig. 3, the lb portion of the fabric or sole, having its sinker wale loops 3 impaled on the outer disposed series of implements. If separately knitted heels are not to be connected to the fabric, that is, if heels are to be joined by knitting them directly on the second machine, the transfer would have been made to a footing machine, so that the continuous series of implements shown in Fig. 3 would represent the knitting needles. In order to knit heels in this manner, it is of course necessary'that the outer disposed needles to which the sole fabric is attached, be arranged so that the loops will not be cast off during the process of knitting the heel fabrics, and such needle press control means ess of knitting, it is necessary, as disclosed in prior art, to periodically transfer the sole loops, and in this new process, to transfer them inwardly, one or two loops at a time, and for this purpose, the wide point units of a footing machine can be used, by periodically shifting them inwardly as shown by the arrows, Fig. 3, and it will be noted that the common narrowing 'point units, regularly used on footing machines to produce the diamond gore, are positioned inwardly as in regular footing machines and so are in position to be later used to narrow the heel selvages, which as clearly shown in Fig. 3, are near the center of the needle bed.

The new process described, therefore, lends itself particularly well to the production of the type of heels described on regular footing equipment; whereas the reverse method of positioning the fabric on the needles requires that considerable changes be made to existing footing equipment.

' While special attention has been drawn to the use of 'this process to knit the heels into the leg and foot fabric, it is obviously feasible to use the general principles herein disclosed to join heels that have been previously produced on a separate machine, to the fabric by looping or otherwise.

What is claimed is:

1. The process of joining heel fabric to a combination stocking blank which comprises topping the stocking on to points of a topping machine in which a series of points can be positioned in a relatively straight line and in which two inwardly positioned portions of the points can be swung outwardly, so that there are then two parallel separated series of closely adjacent points, each series being composed of two closely adjacent point series hinged to each other, so that sinker wale loops of the first sole course, at each series can, first, be topped to one set of points forming one level of each series and thereafter needle wale loops of the last high heel course can be topped to the other points of the closely adjacent series,.'the last loops that were transferred being swung inwardly of the cntireseries,

so that the high heel portions are inwardly dis- 2. The process of joining heelfabric to a combination stocking blank which comprises topping the stocking on to points of a topping machine in which a series of points can be positioned in a relatively straight line and in which two inwardly posiitoned portions of the points can be swung outwardly, so that there are then two parallel separated series of closely adjacent points, each series being composed of two closely adjacent point series hinged to each other, so

that sinker'wale loops of the first sole course, at each series can, first, be topped to one set of points forming one level of each series and thereafter needle wale loops of the last high heel course. can be topped to the other points of the closely adjacent series, the last loops that were transferred being swimg inwardly of the entire series, so that the high heel portions are inwardly disposed from the sole portions, said loops being then transferred to a knitting machine equipped to knit heel fabric on theinner series of needles and during such knitting, the outer wardly, so that the outer edges of the heel fabrics as they areknitted, may be joined with the sole loops and so that inwardly positioned heel selvages may be fashioned.

' straight line relation, by first, topping a row of sinker loops of the first foot course on the points of the lower section, and then topping a row of needle loops of the last leg course on the points of the upper section; moving said sections to straight line relation so as to place said row of loops of the last leg course inwardly of said row of loops of the first foot course whereby the loops may thus be transferred to a straight needle bar of the knitting machine; and knitting the heel fabric on one of said rows of loops.

4. The process of joining heel fabric to a combination leg and foot stocking blank comprising: placing said blank in engagement with the points of two topping bar sections positioned ina superposed paralleling relation and movable to a straight line relation, by first, topping a row of sinker loops of the first foot course on the points of the lower section, and thentopping a row of needle loops of the .last leg course onthe points of the upper section; moving said sections to straightline relationso as to place said row of loops of the last leg course inwardly of said row of loops of the first foot .course whereby the loops may thus be transferred to a straight needle bar of the knitting machine; knitting the heel fabric on one of said rows of loops; and during such knitting, periodically shifting the loops of the other row for inter-knitting with the heel fabric.

5. The process of joining heel fabric to the leg and foot portions of a combination leg and foot stocking blank comprising: placing said blank in engagement with the points of two topping bar sections positioned in a superposed paralleling relation and movable to a straight line relation, by first topping a row of sinker loops of the foot portion .on the points of the lower section, and then topping a 'row of needle loops of the leg portion on the points of the upper section; moving said sections to a straight line relation so as to place said row of loops of the leg portion inwardly of said row of loops of the foot portion whereby the loops may thus be transferred to a straight needle bar of the knitting machine; knitting the heel fabric onto said row of loops of the leg portion; and during such knitting, periodically shifting the loops of the foot portion for interknitting with the heel fabric.

. 6. The process of joining heel fabrics to a combination leg and foot stocking blank comprising:

topping the stocking blank on the points of a.

points can be swung outwardly so that there are then two parallel separated series of closely ad-v jacent points, each series being composed of two closely adjacent points series hinged to each other so that loops of the first foot course at last leg coursqjpan be topped to the other points ofthe cl6ie1yjadjacent series,'the topped loops of the last-leg course-being swung inwardly of then transferred to a knitting machine equipped to knit heel fabric on'the inner series of needles and, during such knitting, the outer adjacent foot loops being periodically shifted inwardly sothat the outer edges of the heel fabric may be joined with the foot loops. 7 I 7. The process of joining heelfabrics to a combination leg and foot stocking blank comprising: topping the stocking blank on the points of a topping machine in which a series of points can be positioned in a relatively straight line and in which two inwardly positioned portions of the points can beswung outwardly so that there are then two parallel separated series of closely adjacent points, each series being composed of two closely adjacent point series hinged to each other so that sinker wale loops of. the first foot course of each series can be topped on one set of points forming one level of each series, and needle wale loops of the last leg course can be topped to the other points of the closely adjacent series, the topped loops of the last leg course being swung inwardly of the entire series so as to be disposed inwardly of the topped loops of the foot, said loops being then transferred to a knitting machine equipped to knit heel fabric on the inner series of needles and, during such knitting, the outer adjacent foot loops being periodically shifted inwardly so that the outer edges of the heel fabric may be joined with the foot loops.

8. The process of joining heel fabric to a coinbination leg and foot stocking blank cpmprising: placing said blank in engagement with the points of two pairs of topping bar sections, the topping bar sections of each pair being positioned in a paralleling relation and movable to a straight line relation, by topping rows of loops of the first foot course on the points of one section of each pair, and topping rows of loops of the last leg course on the points of the other section of each pair; moving said sections to straight line relation so as to place the rows of loops of said last leg course inwardly of the rows of loops of said first foot course; transferring said rows ofloops to a straight needle bar of a knitting machine; knitting heel tabs onto said rows of loops of the first leg course and, during such knitting, periodically shifting inwardly the rows of loops of the first foot course for interknitting with the heel tabs. 9. The process of joining heel fabrics to a combination leg and foot stocking blank comprising:

bar sections of each pair being positioned in a' paralleling relation and movable to a straight line relation, by topping rows of sinker loops of the first foot course on the points of one section of each pair, and topping rows of needle loops of the last leg course on the points of the other section of each pair; moving said sections to straight line relation so as to place the rows of needle loops of said last leg course inwardly of the rows of sinker loops of said first foot course;

transferring said rows of needle and sinker loops to a straight needle bar of a knitting machine; knitting heel tabs onto said rows of needle loops of the first leg course and, during such knitting, periodically shifting inwardly the rows of sinker loops of the first. foot course for interknitting with the heel tabs. a

10. The process of joining h lfabric to a combination leg and foot stocking blank on a straight Tl ne'edle bar of a knitting machine, comprising: placing said blank in engagement with the points of two topping bar sections positioned in paralleling relation and movable to a straight line re lation, by topping a row of loops of the foot on the points of one section, and topping a row of loops of the leg on the points of the other section; moving said sections to straight line relation so as to place said row of loops of the leg inwardly of said row of loops of.the foot whereby the loops may thus be transferred to a straight needle bar of the knitting machine, knitting the heel fabric on one of said rows of loops; and, during such knitting, periodically shifting the loops of the other row for interknitting with the heel fabric.

11. The process of joining heel fabric to a combination leg and foot stocking blank on a straight needle bar of a knitting machine comprising: placing said blank in engagement with the points of two topping bar sections positioned in paralleling relation and movable in straight line'relation by topping a row of loops of the first foot course on the points of one section and topping a row of loops of the last leg course on the points of the other section; moving'said sections to a straight line relation so as to place said row of loops of the last leg course inwardly of said row of loops of the'first foot course, whereby the loops may thus be transferred to a straight needle bar of the knitting machine; knitting the heel fabric on one of said rows of loops; and, during such knitting, periodically shifting the loops of the other row for interknitting with the heel fabric.

12. The process of joining heel fabric to a combination leg and foot stocking blank on a straight needle bar of a knitting machine comprising: placing said blank in engagement with the points of two topping bar sections positioned in paralleling superposed relation and movable in straight line relation, by topping a row of loops of the foot on the points of the lower section, and topping a row of loops of the leg on the points of the upper section; moving the upper section inwardly of the lower section so as to place said row of loops of the leg inwardly of said row of loops of the foot, wherebythe loops'may thus be transferred to a straight needle bar of a knitting machine; knitting the heel fabric on one of said row of loops; and, during such knitting, periodically shifting the loops of the other row for interknitting with the heel fabric.

ARNOLD VERBEEK. ERICH EISSNER. 

